cauliflowers:
Walk down any main strip in Tokyo and you’ll see them: fashionable young women with cameras hanging from their necks, scrutinizing photo ops with a professional eye. These girls are part of the “Hiromix Syndrome” — the sudden increase of wannabe photographers inspired by the 20-year-old camera gal Hiromix.
Hiromix is the closest approximation to a rock star with camera. Three years ago she was a high school senior, taking snapshots of her friends in Tokyo nightclubs. One fine day she sent the prints to a photo contest sponsored by Canon. This won her the Araki Award (one of the most coveted in Japan) and her first professional job.
Seemingly overnight, Hiromix had become the nation’s youngest and hottest commercial photographer.
Continue here (the article is from 1999)
(via lightsleepr)
11:21 pm |
August 23 2011
| 10 notes
Yesterday was a sad day for Canadians – Jack Layton died. I’ve never cried when any famous person died, but I totally teared up readingJack’s letter to the public, written moments before he passed on. If you haven’t read it yet, definitely give it a go – it’s a beautiful letter, no matter what side of the political spectrum you fall on. Like a lot of Torontonians, I headed over to the impromptu 4pm public memorial at City Hall, and drew my own tribute on the concrete wall.
Funnily enough I ended up on last night’s edition of The National! You can check out the entire video here, and though it’s long it’s most certainly worth watching the entire thing. I’m in the feature on the City Hall memorial, from 11:05 – 11:22.
I’m going to end this with a great quote from his letter:
“Love is better than anger. Hope is better than fear. Optimism is better than despair.”
Rest in peace, Jack.
(Source: sabrinascott.ca)
11:09 am |
August 23 2011
| 19 notes
So! I’m going to have a piece in The Paper Place’s 6x8” exhibition. The show has an interesting concept, which is essentially to promote experimentation and use of fancy paper. Etchu Hagaki 300g kozo, to be specific! In the image below you can see the ridges of the paper. It had an interesting texture and disposition, definitely not one I’m used to. It was a challenge to make a finished, hangable piece of work on a paper I’d never used before, and I wish I’d had another sheet to experiment on before beginning the final.
According to this reliable internet source,
These cards are handmade, 100% kozo, named for the region where they were made (Etchu, now called Toyama prefecture), one of the oldest papermaking regions in Japan.
Neat!
For this I just wanted to create something decorative and floral, so I started out with a pencil sketch. When I wanted to change my lines I erased - BIG mistake! This paper does NOT dig being erased on, and the paper buckled and started to roll up into little clumps. I erased the whole thing immediately and started over in all pen, so everything you see in terms of line work is all completely without a sketch.
Sadly that erasing totally fucked up that section of the paper, and had I known that I’d not have bothered to draw in pencil in the first place. So if you’re thinking of using this paper in the future, keep that in mind - erasing will ruin the whole sheet. I probably should have tested it out on the back first, but for some reason I just assume that paper is down with erasers. Oops!
I found that this paper also doesn’t react to colour in a way I’m 100% happy with, as you can see from the immense colour difference between my palette, my Stonehenge test paper (this is the paper I always paint on - the colour always retains its integrity), and the kozo. I found the kozo washed out the colour a bit, likely because it was SUPER absorbent. I could see this paper being really great for relief printmaking, particularly letterpress or anything printed with black on a printing press. I’m working on a huge relief printmaking project in the upcoming winter, maybe I’ll consider experimenting with this paper and the press?
Anyway. The wonky flower in the middle of the page was buckling like crazy, and was looking super fuzzy and overall not too great due to the previous eraser action that happened in that spot. I rubbed it a little to try to remove the flyaway ends, and the entire painted section rolled right off, leaving a super fun wound-like hole on that layer of the paper. Fun! So I decided to cover it up. Yay! The new final has a collage flower pasted onto it.
Which I am actually somewhat happy with. It looks better than it did before (sup more prominent focal point - I originally didn’t really want one, but was really into just fucking around and experimenting with this), but the washed out colour is still making me twitch. The last picture shows the part that rolled off, you can kinda see the texture of the paper (somewhat fabric-like?).
Anyway. The wonky flower in the middle of the page was buckling like crazy, and was looking super fuzzy and overall not too great due to the previous eraser action that happened in that spot. I rubbed it a little to try to remove the flyaway ends, and the entire painted section rolled right off, leaving a super fun wound-like hole on that layer of the paper. Fun! So I decided to cover it up. Yay!
The opening of the show is September 8th, 2011, at The Paper Place in Toronto, 8:30pm. I’m selling this piece for the super low price of $45 (and I never sell originals) - ALL of this money will be donated to the World Wildlife Fund. I’ll give you my receipt to prove it, and hopefully I’ll see you opening night!
12:17 pm |
August 18 2011
| 11 notes
annadraconida:
So here I am, looking at Junji Ito’s insane(ly good) work in another tab the exact moment this appears on my dash ;-)
frightbot:
Junji Ito as another favorite artist of mine. In Japanese society, most comics are printed in black and white. You could argue that this style of print could be limiting something artistically, but… this is not the case with Junji Ito. For what he does there is no substitute. In a small niche community of horror manga writers and artist, Junji Ito is king. His art makes masterful work of the realm of black and whites, and molds them into alien forms both beautiful, mind bending and horrific. His writing style slings about on borderline logic and madness, but as almost silly as some parts of his stories can be, his creative explanations are still grounded in a world of reason. Both of his more popular works The Enigma of Amigara Fault and Gyo both begin with a logical background resulting in a ridiculous outcome and ending in pure terror.
Check em out.
(via aplacebothwonderfulandstrange)
12:09 am |
August 18 2011
| 117 notes
Food really inspires me - both as a super newb creator of yummy foods, and as an artist, illustrator and activist. I recently had the opportunity to hit up Toronto’s Dufferin Grove Farmers’ Market - love it! Here is my amazing haul. Tons of greens, some foraged mushrooms, wild blueberries and peaches, and lovely vegan dark chocolate with like 3 ingredients. Isn’t that some of the most lovely packaging you’ve ever seen? It’s amazing chocolate, too - check out Chocosol here.
Fuzzy peaches! Yum!
A bowl of the delicious homemade chili that’s sustained me throughout the week! Super simple. Next step: make my own chili sauce! But for now, if you’re curious, here’s the recipe. (I usually serve it atop a TON of salad greens -this week it’s farmers’ market salad greens!) Super easy, and the cooking time can be pretty variable, depending on how raw/cooked you like your veggies!
- Chop an onion or two, sauté in olive oil. (Pot should be on medium heat.)
- Chop up 2 red peppers, 2 green peppers, 2 habanero peppers, and 2 jalapeno peppers. Feel free to tone it down if you aren’t a fan of spicy things.
- Optional: chop up carrots and celery to taste, to mitigate the spice. Chopped tomato also optional.
- Beans! I used 1 can each of kidney, white, black, and mixed beans.
- You’ll need probably 2 jars of chili sauce. If you have a good chili sauce recipe hit me up!
- Enjoy!
(Source: sabrinascott.ca)
10:42 am |
August 17 2011
| 3 notes
“Why are so many problems today perceived as problems of intolerance, rather than as problems of inequality, exploitation, or injustice? Why is the proposed remedy tolerance, rather than emancipation, political struggle, or even armed struggle?”
—
Slavoj Žižek (via gingerche)
Good question.
(via jenniferanne)
Man I love Zizek, he is a sweet dude.
(via tanacetum-vulgare)
12:00 pm |
August 14 2011
| 485 notes
Hi friends!
I have finally, at long last, updated my online shop (which is hosted on Etsy)! Here are three screenprints now available for your lovely self to take home with you, all gift-wrapped and everything. Here are the listings for each item, from top to bottom:
12:49 am |
August 13 2011
This was a great session - I got a lot that I was reasonably happy with. The model moved around a lot too, which was great - so I got some different angles and poses, which was neat and very much appreciated! One of the few drawing sessions where I was there on my own with no artsy pals- I suppose there’s something to be said for focus and concentration! (Top three was a 5 minute pose, bottom one is a 10 minute pose.)
(Source: sabrinascott.ca)
9:51 am |
August 11 2011
| 3 notes
Some sketches for a project I’m tossing around in my head. Gotta love plants!
12:22 am |
August 10 2011
| 7 notes
